The carbon tax would have made polluters pay. The proposal had so many exemptions, however, that critics said ordinary consumers would have paid more for electricity and faced higher prices at the gas pump.

The carbon tax would have made polluters pay. The proposal had so many exemptions, however, that critics said ordinary consumers would have paid more for electricity and faced higher prices at the gas pump.

Photo: AP

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Washington Governor Jay Inslee greets Aldebaran Hernandez, 14, and Jazmyne Carlin, 13, who worked on a study about asthma in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle as Inslee formally introduced the Carbon Pollution Accountability Act. less

Washington Governor Jay Inslee greets Aldebaran Hernandez, 14, and Jazmyne Carlin, 13, who worked on a study about asthma in the South Park neighborhood of Seattle as Inslee formally introduced the Carbon ... more

The proposed carbon tax, centerpiece of Gov. Jay Inslee's climate agenda, died Thursday afternoon in the Washington State Senate.

The proposed "polluters pay" tax lacked votes to pass on the floor.

"Our historic bill passed two major committees -- a first in a Legislature -- and will inform all future bills and initiatives," State Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, chair of the Senate Energy, Environment and Technology Committee, said in a post retweeted by Inslee.

"We fell a vote or two short," Carlyle said in a later interview. "we gave it everything . . . I am convinced we will have this (tax) within the next one or two years, either by legislation or an initiative."

Supporters of the proposal immediately declared their path ahead: Take it to the people.

"The battle is over but the war is just beginning. The next battle will be the biggest yet, a likely citizens initiative in November brought by a broad, united, powerful coalition," said Alan Durning of the Sightline Institute.

Such an initiative will be filed Friday or Monday, said Nick Abraham of Washington Conservation Voters. It would impose a "pollution fee" with revenue going into clean energy development, and directed to communities most impacted by pollutants released into the environment.

lLegislation to tax emissions -- albeit with generous exemptions, such as relating to aviation fuel -- has been Inslee's cause as America's "green" governor. Washington would have been the first state to enact a carbon tax.

"We must be victorious over climate change because as Winston Churchill said: 'Without victory, there is no survival,'" Inslee said.

Unless climate change is brought under control, the governor has predicted a future of droughts, more record-setting forest and wildfires, ocean acidification that threatens the shellfish industry, rising sea levels, and shrinking snowpacks that leave less water for hydro power, irrigation and fisheries.

But state Republicans hammered the proposal, citing 61 exemptions and arguing that its impact would have fallen on working families, with gasoline prices eventually rising 30 cents a gallon and heating costs going up 10 percent.

"We had over 10,000 people sign our petition in opposition to this. I think people were very concerned about the regressive nature of this tax," said Caleb Heimlich, state Republican chairman.

Inslee has used the issue to play on the world and national stages, attending a United Nations climate conference in Bonn, Germany, and the annual meeting of the world's economic movers and shakers in Davos, Switzerland.

"This episode shows that you should focus on governing in your own state," Heimlich observed.

The green lobby in Olympia was still holding out hope for one more bill, a proposal in the House by Rep. Gael Tarleton, D-Seattle, that would put Washington on a path to being 100 percent fossil-fuel free by 2045.

As for Inslee, he did what comes natural to a politician -- change the subject. The Governor's Twitter account was soon celebrating the Legislature for being the first to pass net neutrality regulation.

(SeattlePI.com writer Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or joelconnelly@seattlePI.com)

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politics for the P-I since 1973.